2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

You might think you know the story of what we bought and why we bought it. But for transparency's sake (and to ward off any future WikiLeaks scandals of lost/stolen/released Edmunds emails), we're going to share with you the previously untold backstory of buying our used 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8.

Read the full story here

s197gt

Swap "10 years" with "$11,000!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avtK9Bz0sPg

kirkhilles1

It was a neat project and I really wish you guys would've/could've kept it for longer and continued to rack up the miles. I'd be interested in a 5-year analysis on something like this. Good stuff in there, though, so thank you for doing it. You should switch back to another German out-of-warranty vehicle (like the Mercedes AMG: that was hilarious), maybe a used Boxster or something.

bankerdanny

Time constraints?

desmolicious

bankerdanny said:

Time constraints?

"Oh kwap I told the boss I sold it one month ago. Hello Carmax, I need this Dodge gone"

kirkhilles1

"We purchased our 2007 Dodge Charger SRT8 at a dealership in San Diego for $22,950. It had 66,350 miles. About a year later and 80,325 miles on the odometer, we sold the Charger to CarMax for $11,000."

WTF? Do you know how insane that is? You bought an older car (8 years old) for $23k, put on 14,000 miles and sold it for $12,000 LESS? An 8 year old car shouldn't lose HALF of it's value in a year. This was pretty much the definition of how NOT to Buy and Sell a car. You just paid $1,000 per month for the right to drive (and upgrade and fix) an older, out of warranty car.

I haven't researched it, but my guess is that you could've looked and bought the car for well under $20,000 (meaning you gave the dealer a HUGE profit) and sold it for probably $17,000. I mean, that AA/Carplay stereo alone was a $1k upgrade.

Your costs are defined when you buy and sell. If you can't find or negotiate a great deal, maybe you should rethink your plan. I'm sure you could've leased a new Charger for less than half that monthly (maybe 1/3rd depending on model).

legacygt

Something is off with the financials here. This purchase was supposed to make sense for buyer on a budget but it turns out to be about the dumbest buy/sell story you can imagine. $12,000 in depreciation from year 8 to year 9 just doesn't make sense. My hunch is that you overpaid when you bought the car. Plus you say you were lazy when selling it so put those together and you took a pretty big hit on an old car.
Reading the review I was constantly thinking the same thing you put in the Bottom Line: A Charger R/T would have delivered some of the same experience at lower cost while using much less gas. You would have gotten fewer reactions out on the street and missed out on a couple burnout opportunities but you still would have had a pretty fast car.

lmbvette

What an absolute disaster this was, financially speaking. This is M5 or SL63 type depreciation. WOW!

Just for fun, here is a 2012 with 98k on the clock for $22,100 --> http://tinyurl.com/gl46v85

kirkhilles1

Part of the problem seems to be the CarMax offer. Right now CarMax has a one-year-newer 2008 SRT8 with 77k (3k less) listed for $25,000. How the heck can they offer you $11,000 for it then? Is it going straight to Auction? My mouth would've dropped if they told me that and they'd have to explain that to me. I wonder if it was a couple years newer if the offer would've been vastly improved. CarMax definitely is NOT the place to sell your older car to. They want what Edmunds typically has which is a 1 year old car in perfect shape, not a nearly 9 year old car with a its-definitely-not-the-exhaust loud exhaust system.

ebeaudoin

Carmax sent it to wholesale and it was acquired by National Auto Group Cars in Hawthorne, CA and sold for close to $18,000.